Stretch Marks June 2014 | Page 12

I'm totally fine with them now. They're just like, they happened, and that's what happens. But I guess, the summer between eighth and ninth grade, I went in one month from a C to a D, and boobs just were not ready for it, and so the stretch marks just came so fast. And they used to be bright red, and really obvious, and really hard to wear most shirts and bras, and in the locker room, especially in like eighth and ninth grade, that's like the worst time to be a weirdo, I don't know. So it was really hard then. I think also, the stretch marks were hard, but even just being that size was such a challenge, because I was a lot bigger than most of my friends, and it was just a huge change--it felt out of proportion with the way the rest of my body was growing, so it was hard to find clothes, and then when you have huge red marks crawling up onto your chest it's always kind of weird. But they've faded, and I'm also so much more comfortable with my body now that I'm totally fine with them, and they're just there. Sometimes people are like, "what are those from?" And I'm like, I grew really fast, and that's just what happens... It's also interesting now, especially at Carleton, where people are so open to dialogues about bodies and stuff, like I've learned about so many other people who have stretch marks on their breasts, or even on other parts of their body where I don't have stretch marks, they still have similar experiences where they appear and they're like, "what the fuck, where did these come from?" I think a lot of people I've talked to have gone through a similar experience too of, you just, they're part of your body, the same way that if you get a sunburn, you get freckles, and some of then are with you for a while. And I've tried lotions and creams and stuff, but they stayed anyways. They're just there, and I like them.